Chase Elliott wins Stage 1 after Kevin Harvick’s tire goes down

Chase Elliott won Stage 1 Sunday at ISM Raceway in Phoenix in dramatic fashion as he took advantage of a flat tire for Kevin Harvick with two laps left to go to take the lead. Harvick, who led the first 72 laps and appeared to be cruising to yet another stage win, had to come to pit road after the right-front tire went down.

Because pit road was closed, Harvick would have to start from the tail of the field to begin Stage 2. Harvick also lost a lap by coming to pit road and at the time was four points below the playoff cutline.

RELATED: Stage 1 results

Harvick, who has nine career wins at ISM Raceway, entered Sunday’s race three points above the Championship 4 cutline after 40 points were deducted from his total earlier in the week for a penalty following his victory at Texas. Elliott, who entered 17 points below the cutline, likely needs a win to advance.

Finish	Driver	Team	Race Points
1	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	10
2	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	9
3	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	8
4	Kurt Busch	Stewart-Haas Racing	7
5	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	6
6	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	5
7	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	4
8	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	3
9	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	2
10	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	1

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